Leontodon autumnalis L.
autumn hawkbit
Perennial with stout rootstock. Stems erect, branching, 20-75 cm tall, glabrous or with sparse simple hairs. Lvs all basal, linear to ovate, pinnatifid with narrow-triangular or linear, patent or recurved lobes, rarely simple, toothed, (3)-5-15-(40) × (0.3)-1.5-5-(8) cm; hairs simple, sparse or 0. Stem bracts numerous, especially above, narrow-triangular to linear. Capitula turbinate, erect in bud. Involucral bracts linear-lanceolate, acute, with fine pale hairs and usually longer dark hairs also; outer bracts c. 1/2length of inner bracts; inner bracts 8-12 mm long. Florets yellow, 11/2-2× length of involucre. Stigmas greyish green. Achenes reddish brown, all similar, wrinkled, not beaked, fusiform to cylindric, 4-5 mm long. Pappus in 1 row; hairs plumose, widened at base.
N.: Wairarapa (one early collection); S.: Canterbury, Otago, Southland.
Europe, Asia, N. Africa 1867
Waste land, roadsides, coastal sand and riverbeds, pasture, grassland.
N.Z. specimens belong to subsp. autumnalis. L. autumnalis may sometimes resemble forms of the native Microseris scapigera, but is distinguished by the branching stems bearing stem bracts, the outer involucral bracts c. 1/2 the length of inner bracts, the darker yellow florets and plumose pappus hairs. L. autumnalis has also been referred to in N.Z. as Apargia autumnalis.
